Council funding: 'Cuts will have an impact on services'

The Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles, has announced that council budgets in England will fall by 1.7% overall next year, as part of a funding settlement which he said would safeguard vital services.

In a Commons statement, Mr Pickles said "this is a fair settlement, fair to the north and the south, fair to rural and urban".

The Local Government Association (LGA) described the funding settlement for 2011-12 as the toughest "in living memory", with English councils facing a 12.1% cut in their core central government funding.

The LGA's chairman, Sir Merrick Cockell, said the cuts would have an impact on services.